Unprotected: Refugees attacked with machetes in Egypt

6^th OF OCTOBER CITY, EGYPT - Blood was spattered across the floor of the café and on the walls of the kitchen counter. In the corner were smashed sheesha pipes. A computer monitor lay crumpled on a desk. It was the aftermath of a brutal attack that the café owner described as “like something out of an action film”.

Late on 23 November, around 10 masked assailants armed with short machetes and sticks burst into the café, slashing, hacking, and beating customers.

The café, mostly frequented by Sudanese refugees, is in Masakin Osman, a bleak suburb of 6^th of October City, a desert settlement 20 miles outside of Cairo. The incident was the most extreme in a recent series of attacks on Sudanese refugees in Masakin Osman that have left many residents frightened and bewildered.

Hassan*, a 29-year old Darfuri refugee, was working in the café’s kitchen at the time of the attack and was one of the worst injured. He recounted the ordeal while shivering in a hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandages that covered a deep wound to the back of his skull. Two men had also sliced through his arms and hands with machetes as he raised them to protect himself.

Hassan didn’t recognise the attackers but says he could tell from their dialect that they were Sudanese. At least four people were injured.

While there was much confusion and speculation over the attacks, a picture has emerged from testimonies gathered from victims, residents, and community workers suggesting that they were reprisals carried out by a Sudanese gang on local residents who had taken security into their own hands.

Lawlessness in Masakin Osman

Around 1,000 Sudanese refugees live in Masakin Osman - alongside Syrian refugees and Egyptians - because it has the cheapest available rents. The area is divided from 6^th of October City by a highway and an expanse of sand, rubbish, and rubble. Small dunes of sand and detritus lie between identikit apartment blocks, and the streets are quiet. The Sudanese café is in a neighbourhood at the top of a ridge, exposed to a scouring wind.

Locals claim that gang-members linked to an illegal bar in the wasteland opposite the café rob and beat up refugees who have been drinking the potent liquid brewed by a Sudanese woman who runs the bar. The absence of security in Masakin Osman allowed criminals to thrive.

Abdullah* says that he was part of a group of local men who confronted the bar owner and destroyed her alcohol on 15 November. By this confrontation, the residents were taking action against gang-related crimes, and the gang struck back against people they believed were involved.

On 20 and 21 November, at least two residents in Masakin Osman were attacked by men armed with sticks and machetes. On 22 November, the evening before the café was attacked, Abdullah left his flat in a building facing the wasteland. When he entered an adjacent street he was attacked by 8 or 9 Sudanese men armed with machetes, who accused him of involvement in the illegal bar altercation.

Abdullah recounted the story while he sat in a hospital bed, his arm propped carefully on a pillow. His hand, swathed in bandages, had been cleft in two and doctors say it might have to be amputated. Flesh was pared from his lower and upper arms, and he had a wound on the back of his head.

On 24 November, Sudanese refugee Mohammed Abdulrahman Darful, 34, was coming home from work in Masakin Osman when he was attacked and beaten by a group of Sudanese men on the street, who broke his thumb.

At the time of writing there have been no further confirmed incidents, although rumours swirl about new attacks amid the tense aftermath.

Sudanese gangs in Egypt

Hassan, Abdullah, Darful and other victims claim they have not been interviewed by the police regarding the attacks, nor have the police collected evidence from the café, according to the owner.

Darful and the café owner also claim that, when they reported the attacks at the nearest police station, officers told them they would make arrests if they were given the names and addresses of the perpetrators.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, General Hany Abdelatty, confirmed that this is standard practice by the police - though not in gang-related cases - but added that officers would also go out and investigate the attacks, which he sought to downplay.

“They are normal disputes,” said Abdelatty. “it’s not a [gang-related] phenomenon, and it’s nothing widespread.”

Abdelatty claimed that some refugees blow violent incidents out of proportion in order to put pressure on the United Nations. “They use these incidents as a pretext to seek asylum abroad,” he said.

When pressed on the existence of Sudanese gangs in the wider Cairo area, Abdelatty replied: “Some Nigerians commit thefts and robberies … there are no Sudanese gangs.”

Ismail* - a high-ranking worker at a local community organisation - says, however, that a significant number of young, male Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees are involved in gangs in the greater Cairo area. Gang members tend to join groups based in the area that they live in. The gangs may fight other Sudanese gangs, commit robberies, deal drugs, or are involved in prostitution.

While the gangs only tend to attack other Sudanese, they do occasionally have links with Egyptian gangs or individuals. Some residents and victims of attacks claim that Egyptians in Masakin Osman have links to the gangs.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sudanese comprise the second-highest numbers of refugees in Egypt, after Syrians. As of 30 October, 2014, there were 27,732 Sudanese and 2,482 South Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers registered in Egypt.

In a report on South Sudanese gangs in Cairo for the American University in Cairo, researcher Natalie Forcier argued that “marginalisation, lack of opportunity, loss of hope for the future, and a normalisation of violence have caused [refugee] youth to turn against each other and resort to violence”.

Independent researcher Themba Lewis has reported that youth violence among Sudanese gangs in Egypt emerged in 2005, which coincided with a dramatic slowdown in resettlement abroad.

Lewis argues that Egyptian laws and policies cripple the ability of refugees to earn a livelihood. “Belonging to a gang is a rejection of given notions of refugee life in Cairo as well as an alternative outlet for expression,” writes Lewis.

AUC lecturer Shaden Khallaf has argued that, following the 2011 uprising, “Refugees in Egypt are arguably facing greater discrimination, xenophobia, restrictions on movement, evictions from homes, and an overall hostility.”

An August 2014 article in Egyptian newspaper Youm7 used racist language to describe an alleged Sudanese gang in Cairo, underscoring the issue of racism in the public discourse on refugees and gangs.

Forcier argued that the violence used by gang members against other refugees is “the direct result of the structural violence and marginalisation to which they have become accustomed”.

‘It is left to the community to protect ourselves’

On 30 November, dozens of refugees protested outside the UNHCR’s compound in 6^th of October City, calling for the organisation to take action to ensure their safety. Many of the refugees claimed that, in addition to dangers posed by gangs, violence committed by other residents, including by Egyptians, went un-investigated and unpunished by the police and that the UNHCR had consistently failed to take action to protect them.

Saida Mohamed Jubara, 37, from Kordofan in Sudan, was holding a medical report by Medicins Sans Frontieres which detailed injuries sustained when she was raped by three Egyptian men two months ago in 6^th of October City. Jubara, a pregnant single mother of four, was harassed and intimidated after the attack and moved out of her house in early November. She has since been sleeping with her children in the park opposite the UNHCR compound.

Jubara says she was too scared to go to the police but reported the incident to the UNHCR several weeks ago and was still waiting for them to take action.

Others described the toll that the recent attacks had taken.

“We have stopped our children going to school, and many of us have stopped going to work because a lot of the women are without men and have children to protect,” said Nayma Hassan Ahmed, a 35-year-old Sudanese refugee living in Masakin Osman. “The UNHCR have had more than a week to look at this case. It is left to the community to protect ourselves. I’m not sleeping at all because of this.”

Some people moved out of the area following the attacks, but most cannot afford to leave. Several refugees warned of the potential for escalation, especially as they claim that Egyptian residents have threatened to attack them if Egyptians are targeted.  

A UNHCR statement provided to Middle East Eye said that the organisation is holding a series of meetings with the local community to investigate the incidents and that they are in contact with the police and national authorities to report the incidents and request a police investigation.

“UNHCR is advocating towards improving the living conditions in the area, developing co-existence projects and advocating for increased law enforcement presence in the neighbourhood,” read the statement.

As well as urging the arrest of perpetrators, researchers such as Forcier say that much action is needed to tackle the underlying causes of gang violence.

Residents of Masakin Osman continue to feel vulnerable and exposed, with little faith in the police or the UNHCR. The café owner says he has no intention of reopening. “I don’t want one more drop of blood spilled,” he said. “If I open the café they [the attackers] will return.”

*Name has been changed at request of interviewee.